Saving Your Best Form for When it Barely Matters

Last night, Galatasary waited until they needed to score 5 goals against Real Madrid before they ever looked like a team that was capable of knocking Los Blancos out of the competition.

3-0 down on aggregate, Galatasary conceded a further early goal, and still didn’t really begin playing until Emanuel Eboue’s thumping drive in the 56^th minute led to two more goals, and for the first time, some hope that they might go through.

Wesley Sneijder missed a sitter before converting a much more difficult chance, before a Didier Drogba backheel goal, however Ronaldo’s second goal of the game brought everyone back to reality.

League form

 In Europe’s domestic leagues, many are already as good as over.  The German Bundesliga has been won in record time by an astonishingly strong Bayern Munich team.  The Scottish Premier League can be won next weekend by Celtic, and it would take a massive leap of the imagination to see anyone other than Barcelona and Manchester United winning their respective leagues.

Roberto Mancini, the Manchester City boss, expressed his frustration at playmaker Samir Nasri after his inspired display against Stoke City, stating that he wanted ‘to punch’ him, because Nasri’s performance had shown what he was capable of, so why hadn’t he been able to produce performances of a similar ilk for the entire season?

Mancini must have wanted to punch a lot of his players after their victory over Manchester United reduced the insurmountable gap of 15 points between them, to an insurmountable gap of 12 points between them

Arsenal

It is well documented that Arsenal haven’t won a trophy in 8 years.  After going out tamely in both domestic cups and falling far behind in the league, the Champions League was their only remaining hope.  After surrendering 3-1 in the home leg to Bayern Munich, Arsenal’s hopes of a trophy were hanging by the thinnest thread.

After managing to win the return leg 2-0 against Bayern Munich, unfortunately not quite enough to see them through, Arsenal have won every game since.

This burst of form may help them overtake local rivals Tottenham in the league and secure an all important Champions League spot, but it is a bare minimum for the Arsenal fans who demand trophies.

Pressure

There is an obvious reason why teams often do better when all hope appears lost; the lack of pressure.  When it seems impossible to achieve, there are no expectations, and players like Arsenal’s can play with freedom.

There is also an element of other teams taking their foot off the gas.  With Manchester United out of all cup competitions and sitting comfortably at the top, they will canter to the end of the season.  Man City had much greater motivation going into the match. 

Arsenal are also said to have conditioned their players to come good towards the end of the season, perhaps in anticipation of a title charge, however a sprint finish won’t work if you give yourself too much ground to give up, and that’s what Arsenal have done in numerous recent seasons.

Perhaps next year Arsenal can remain in contention to actually achieve something when they hit their end of season purple patch which has not worried their traditional top of the table rivals for years.

Angthong 0 - 2 Seeker Futera

Seeker Futera has a new hero.

Although he has been part of the club for three weeks now, the registration papers for Mbazomo Stephane / STEPHANE (29) were only processed this week, and he took his place on the bench for the match against Angthong FC today.

When Federico Santana went down injured in the first half, Stephane was handed his chance, and he certainly took it, with two goals in the second half helping Seeker Futera FC defeat the team that occupied top spot in the league before start of play, in their own stadium.

The first half started with Angthong FC, known as the ‘Rice Warriors’ looking neat and tidy in possession, looking effective, but not quite living up to the expectations you would have from facing the league leaders.

Seeker Futera played a more direct route to goal, utilizing Federico Santana’s (10) height, with a few knock downs for Somsak Musikaphan almost resulting in good opportunities for the ‘Iron Horse’ (Seeker Futera).

Angthong only bothered the Seeker Futera defence with a few shots from range in the first half.  Seeker Futera’s more direct route caused problems, and there were calls from a penalty when talismanic striker Santana was brought down in the opposition box.  These were dismissed by the referee however, and Santana was left with an injury that meant he could not continue.

New signing Stephane was introduced to the action, and immediate comparisons were drawn with the Ivory Coast superstar Yaya Toure due to his physical build and powerful running style.

It would be the second half before Stephane would have an impact however, with a powerful run and shot which was deflected over the bar serving as a warning to Angthong FC of what was to come.

Angthong came closest to scoring first however.  After numerous free kicks in the first half that came to nothing, their first free kick in the second half came crashing back off the bar.

The Virtual Managers (VMs) had a decision to make at this point.  They could continue to play it safe against the league leaders and try to gain a respectable point, or they could be inspired by the belief that Chairman Apisit Chaleekul had in his players, and decide to attack.

Attacking proved to be an inspired choice, and within 5 minutes, Somsak Musikaphan / BALL (9) played Stephane in behind the defence and the big French – Cameroonian made no mistake with the finish.

Angthong FC clearly failed to do their scouting homework as they persisted with a  high defensive line for the whole match, despite Seeker Futera’s obvious pace up front.  While the talents of Stephane were unknown to most of us, the pace of Musikaphan and Nattaporn caused lots of problems throughout the game, as they have done in many previous matches.

The Virtual Managers were divided on what to do after the goal, and a vote resulted in a 50:50 decision, and Apisit Chaleekul had the deciding vote, opting to play on the counter attack.

The rest of the game was a valiant defensive performance, even when the referee added on a whopping 7 minutes of extra time, Seeker Futera stood strong.   Thierry Rostand said after the game, that he looked at Anfthong’s attack, and just said ‘No!’

5 minutes into injury time, the Iron Horse broke the defensive shackles, and Stephane broke clear of the defence again, beating the keeper to the ball, and then rolling the ball into an empty net to put the result beyond doubt.

Mourinho to Leave Madrid with Champions League Crown?

Jose Mourinho is coming to the end of his third year with Real Madrid, and the rumours are that this will be his last season with one of the world’s most famous clubs.

Quite where you go from Madrid is unknown.  The majority of players and managers to have represented Los Blancos have will normally see it as the pinnacle of their career.

However Mourinho has repeatedly stated his desire to coach in England again.  By all accounts, including his own, his happiest spell in management was when in charge of London at Chelsea – one team he is being heavily linked with coaching next.

The Three Year Plan

Mourinho has traditionally worked at clubs for a maximum of three years. 

He spent slightly less than three years taking Porto out of a slump and turning them into the Champions of Europe.  Securing Chelsea’s first English League title in 50 years took one year, and he stayed a further two years, while at Inter Milan his job was done after winning their first European Cup within two years, also after an absence of 50 years from the Inter Milan trophy cabinet.

So it is no wonder that people expect him to leave, despite his current four year contract.

Didier Drogba has recently stated his belief that Mourinho will be on his way back to Chelsea, a club with a vacancy in the managerial hotset for next season.  Others believe he is waiting for Sir Alex Ferguson to retire at Manchester United.

Disharmony

Madrid has not been an entirely happy place this season.  They are currently 13 points adrift of great rivals Barcelona, and there have been many stories of player unrest; from Ronaldo conveying his ‘sadness’ at the club in the early part of the season to talismanic goalkeeper Iker Casillas being dropped from the starting eleven.

However Madrid have excelled so far in the Champions League.  Last night Real Madrid took on Galatasary at home, winning 3-0 after an early goal from star player Cristiano Ronaldo allowed Real Madrid to offer the initiative to Galatasary, who they punished with two further goals on the break from Karim Benzema and Gonzalo Higuain.

The illusive tenth

La Liga is an unrealistic target now for Madrid, so the focus of the team is on the cup competitions and securing ‘La Decima’, the club’s tenth European Cup win.

It would be just like Mourinho to deliver it.  He is hired to get results, and so far he has.

·         Hired by Chelsea to secure league success. 

·         Hired by Inter to achieve success in Europe.

·         Hired by Real Madrid to topple Barcelona off their domestic and European Perch.

The first of his Real Madrid objectives was achieved last season.  It would be no surprise to see Mourinho fulfill

his objectives again within three years, becoming the first coach to win three Champions Leagues with three different clubs.

Is the German League stronger than the Italian League?

The debate will always rage around Europe about who has the strongest league on the continent. 

For the last ten years, many have considered the English and the Spanish leagues as the strongest on the planet, as the world’s top players flocked to play for top sides in La Liga and the Barclay’s Premiership.

An all English final in 2008, Liverpool winning in 2005, along with three Barcelona wins in 2006, 2009 and 2011 strengthened the view that these were the two strongest leagues in Europe.  In fact, from 2005 to 2012 there was an English team present in every Champions League final bar one.

La Liga however, is constantly derided as a two team league, though this year Athletico Madrid are still matching their more illustrious city rivals Real Madrid in the league – although both are well adrift of leaders Barcelona.  Malaga are also present in the Champions League quarter finals, despite financial troubles.

As the traditional superpower of the 90’s, with the world’s best players playing in Serie A, Italy’s reputation was as the third force of European football leagues throughout the last decade.

Now however, the Champions League (the traditional barometer of a league’s teams) is bereft of English teams.  The current holders, Chelsea, were considered a somewhat lucky winner last year, and no other teams from England progressed to the quarter finals last year either.

The team Chelsea defeated in the final last year, Bayern Munich, look like one of the favourites for the trophy this year.  They demolished Hamburg 9-2 at the weekend in the Bundesliga, with the main surprise being that their miserly defence let in two goals taking the total conceded to only 13 in 27 matches this season.

 Bayern are 20 points clear of their nearest challengers Borussia Dortmund, and look like a vintage side from a club that has produced many legendary sides.

Coming up against a Juventus side that went the entire Serie A season unbeaten last year, and knocked out the holders Chelsea in the group stage of the Champions League, this looked like the perfect match up between Germany and Italy.

A 2-0 victory to Bayern Munich means Germany have come out on top in the first leg.  Goals from David Alaba and Thomas Mueller gave Munich a comfortable victory, but the return in Turin gives Juventus another chance to prove themselves.  Current German League champions Borussia Dortmund are also impressing, contributing to the elimination of English Champions Manchester City in the group stages.

Does this mean that German football should be considered superior to Italian football?  With the two Milan clubs currently in states of transition, Bayerns challengers in the Bundesliga like Dortmund and Schalke could be considered stronger teams.

With the English teams not even in the competition it should make for an interesting summer transfer window as the richest league in the world.

Another Week, Another Messi Record

It’s difficult to know which outstanding records to choose to write about from the many, many records that Messi continues to break.  Football blogs are in danger of turning into Lionel Messi blogs as writers continue to be amazed by the things the little Argentine achieves.

However this week’s exploit is quite special.  While extending his scoring run from 18 games to 19 is only furthering his record (a record most expect him to continue), he has now scored against ALL 19 teams in La Liga, in 19 consecutive matches.

For a normal world class striker, scoring 19 league goals in a season is good, great even.  Michael Owen, a former European footballer of the Year, never managed to get beyond the 19 goal mark in the League in a single season.  Messi has scored in 19 consecutive league matches.  The goal tally from these matches is 29.

Scoring against every other team in the league is a very rare feat.  Robin Van Persie was rightly lauded for scoring against 17 different teams out of 19 in the Premier League, equalling Ian Wright’s record.

No one else has ever managed to score against every other La Liga team.  Some might argue there is a gulf from Real Madrid and Barcelona against the other teams, but undoubtedly World Class strikers such as Cristiano Ronaldo, Raul, Ronaldo, Falcao or the Brazilian Ronaldo have never managed this feat.

In leagues like Scotland some players have managed to score against every other team, however it helps that there is only twelve teams in the league and there are four opportunities to score against each team.

So this is a groundbreaking record for Messi.  Unfortunately, only 1 goal in a 1-1 draw against Valencia following no goals against them in a 1-0 Barcelona victory earlier in the season means Messi will be unable to make it an unprecedented two goals against every team in the league, but he may only fall slightly short.

His recent run puts him on 43 for the season, meaning he is well placed to break his own record of 50 La Liga goals set last year.